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Today I want to talk about power, or more specifically, the role of power in perpetuating and increasing inequality in the United States. I wasn’t planning on talking about this topic, well not so directly anyway. When I started this series of posts my intention was to limit my musings to the way we collectively […]

School Board elections are upon us here in Los Angeles. Elections will be held on March 3rd. There are seven Board seats, each representing a different part of Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Four of the seven members are up for reelection. There are three contested seats. I know the incumbents who currently hold […]

Today I turn my attention to federal and state laws and policies, particularly the ways in which they are implemented that inadvertently (or possibly intentionally) maintain the status quo. I am choosing to talk about law and policy and the implementation of law and policy because they are inextricably intertwined with each other. A law […]

Yesterday I said that I was going to spend four days talking about “the ways in which we (collectively) work harder to maintain the status quo than we do to change it. I will discuss how our actions ultimately prevent us from reaching what we say are our goals.” I am going to spend today […]

I have been drawn to the field of education ever since high school. When I was in 11th grade, I told my history teacher, Mrs. Nelson, that I wanted to become a history teacher. She told me she did not recommend I pursue this path. She said it was too much work, too hard, and […]

I have been in the same office in the same building for a generation. My office has recently gone through a reconfiguration when I took out the bookshelves and replaced them with paintings that I had bought in Santa Fe. Rather than the off-yellow that punctuates the rest of the building my office is now […]

I’ve been sitting in meetings and job talks, and following Twitter and Facebook, reading blogs, and newspaper articles about race more recently. My cousin even recently sent me a long article about a specific incident and asked me to read and discuss with him via online chat. Part of this is because of all of […]

In an introductory YouTube video about FutureBound (previously known as Collegeology), Bill Tierney talks about the challenges many underprivileged students face and the lack of postsecondary educational opportunities available to them. He finishes his segment by asking…How do you deal with that? You’ve got to have someone in your corner saying, “You can do it. […]

Proponents of vocational education often point to Germany as a model. Germany certainly has an enviable unemployment rate (4.8% in December 2014), and its apprenticeship programs, conducted in tandem with vocational colleges, are often credited with this success. As a result, influential business commentators like Harold Sirkin argue that the United States should emulate Germany’s […]

Pine and Gilmore’s book is predicated on the idea that a business has a priority in knowing as much as possible about the consumer. Privacy is a virtue of the past. Dave Eggers has written a funny, superb, novel about the future, The Circle, which I discussed last month. Let’s acknowledge that part of the […]